Izzet Blitz on a Budget

Luis Scott-VargasThursday, July 18, 2013

onstructed can often be hard to get cards for, so to combat that I'm taking a look at Travis Woo's latest Standard deck, Izzet Blitz. In this article, he talks about a budget version of the deck he's been playing, which you can assemble pretty easily.

Armed & Dangerous + Artful Dodge on a Nivix Cyclops will almost always just end the game, and in fact, simply untapping with a Cyclops in play is probably going to do it. Resource management is definitely important with this deck, so a good amount of practice is an excellent idea. You have to know how many lands you want in play, when to discard a spell instead of a land, and when to just go for it with the Cyclops (although the answer to the last question is "always").

The biggest weakness of the deck is removal, since as long as the opponent can keep Nivix Cyclops and Guttersnipe off the board, you don't end up actually doing much. Burning Vengeance helps, but assembling ten triggers isn't the easiest, so you will usually need to have one of your creatures survive for at least a turn. Guttersnipe does have haste (essentially), and waiting until six mana to play a Snipe and three spells isn't the worst idea. As Travis says in his article, if you want to de-budget the deck, adding white Ravnica shocklands and Boros Charm is a good step, as it offers much more protection and versatility than Armed & Dangerous.

Luis Scott-Vargas plays, writes, and makes videos about Magic. He has played on the Pro Tour for almost a decade, and between that and producing content for ChannelFireball, often has his hands full (of cards).